Spotlight Stocks: Apple, Toyota, Wachovia, Yahoo

Thursday's top stories and stocks with potential to move.

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Stocks to watch for Thursday, July 10, 2008:

Apple (AAPL), in conjunction with the release of its new 3G iPhone, will open its App Store. This is an online market for mobile applications such as games, reference guides and other software, reported The Wall Street Journal. CEO Steve Jobs said he believes the iPhone represents a rare launch of a new computing "platform," as evidenced by a rush of iPhone software development by other companies.

Toyota (TM) has changed the direction of its planned Mississippi factory, saying it will now focus on making the fuel efficient Prius hybrid there, instead of the Highlander SUV, reported Reuters citing the Nikkei business daily. Additionally, the company will reportedly halt production for six months by year-end at two of its factories in Indiana which focus on the manufacturing of the Tundra pickup and Sequoia SUV.

Wachovia (WB) named Robert Steel, the Treasury Undersecretary, as it new CEO. He is succeeding Ken Thompson who was let go by the board in June. This comes as the bank also said it has set aside $4.2 billion pretax to cover bad loans for the quarter, leading to an estimated second-quarter loss of about $2.6 billion to $2.8 billion. According to the Associated Press, the quarterly loss will equal $1.23 to $1.33 per share, excluding an expected write-down of goodwill.

Yahoo (YHOO) will introduce a new service called "Build Your Own Search", or BOSS, which will allow third party Web developers to assemble a search engine using Yahoo's system for indexing information and images on the Internet. The company says this type of thing would cost $300 million to build from scratch. When the searches are generated, Yahoo plans to cash in by placing its ads next to the results.

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